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West Tisbury Town Column: May 16

Well, the weather was mild, the sun came out Saturday afternoon and it turned out to be a decent weekend. Lawn mowers could be heard buzzing around town. The cherry trees in Harriet Bernstein’s front lawn were ablaze with color and so was the one on Music street. As I mentioned last week, the trees that line the road as you enter the cemetery remain in full glory. It was reported that Eleanor Stanwood was busy feeding the orioles that had descended on her place.

Karen Flynn and her sister Jackie open The Bite food stand in Menemsha for the 26th year tomorrow morning.

Sam and I took Anna up to Taunton to visit our grandchildren Robbie and Henry and to have Mother’s Day brunch at Stone Forge restaurant in East Taunton, with all the mothers in both families. The day was absolutely splendid with the temperature climbing to near 80 degrees. We ended up at Fort Rodman Park in New Bedford, where Robbie and his uncle Sam got to use all of the playground equipment. Sam actually wore Robbie out, and after two hours he wanted to go home. We headed back to Woods Hole after buying takeout dinners from Antonio’s Restaurant where we picked up some Portuguese fare.

Mike Diaz of Old Courthouse Road reports that his brother Eddie from Atlanta, Ga., has come up to visit and help him open several Humphrey Deli locations for the season. In the meantime, Mike’s wife Donna has gone down to Atlanta to attend a wedding shower for their daughter Christina.

Lynne Whiting of State Road has recently returned from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she spent the last two weeks of her mom Mary Erickson’s life with her. She died on May 4 and had just turned 90 in March. Lynne and her sister Lori were there and their brothers Lief and Lars arrived shortly thereafter. On a happier note, she also got to spend time with mom’s newest great-grandchild, Oliver Patrick McGuinn, born on April 17. He is the son of Josie (Franciose), my sister Lori’s daughter, and Jon McGuinn.

Old friend Charlie Foote died last week in Tennessee. He was a popular man in town in the 1940s and early 50s. I new him when I was a little boy. He returned last fall for his sister’s funeral and spent a couple of days looking around the Island with his family. He told me he could not believe the changes.

Nelia Hubbard Decker over at the library reports that Habitat for Humanity and the library are seeking volunteers on Saturday to paint the trim on Little Alley’s (the playhouse at the library). Please call Doug at 508-687-9301 if you can help. Every Saturday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. there is craft making in the children’s room or in the teen room. Tomorrow’s crafts will be bug prints for children and design your own crystal magnets.

A history note from May 12, 1975: Tom Thatcher of State Road owned a proper bird feeder visited by proper birds, but the feathered friend that consumed the most food never went near it! It was a seagull that had been buzzing his house looking for handouts for the past five years. It always sat on the chimney because, Tom believed, it liked to keep its tail warm. He preferred table scraps and was totally uninterested in bird food. If the scraps were not forthcoming, it squawked loudly from a nearby roof until fed. Tom named the bird Charles Henry 3rd. He felt that the numeral added a certain dignity to the name.

On this date in 1942, gasoline rationing was imposed by the federal government on motorists of a nonessential nature. They were limited to purchasing just three gallons a week and Arthur Godfrey began a lengthy stint as your morning disc jockey on WCBS radio 73 years ago yesterday. I can vividly remember hearing his voice as I came downstairs every morning, except Sunday.

Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. If you have any news, please call or email me (alleys@vineyard.net). Have a great week.